The Apple Doesn't Fall Too Far
by MewWolf5
Summary: Itsuki is now a married adult. There's something special about his young son...
1. Chapter 1

"Wake up! Wake up! Daddy!"

Young Juro and Reiko Koizumi shook their father, Itsuki. They had to wake him up. This day was very important in their eyes.

When he was finally awake, Itsuki turned his sleepy-eyed face towards his children.

"Happy Birthday, Daddy!"

Itsuki smiled brightly.

"Thanks, guys!" He ruffled their hair and got up from bed.

"We made a special breakfast for you, Daddy!" said Reiko excitedly.

"Come on!" called Juro, who had already ran to the door of his parents' bedroom.

"Alright" said Itsuki.

Itsuki enjoyed his delicious thirty second birthday breakfast. Time had flown by and he was already thirty two years old. He swallowed his last bite, and then suddenly gasped.

"Amazing, it's been such a long time," he mumbled under his breath.

"What is it?" asked his wife, Hina. "Is it…a closed space?"

"I'm afraid it is," replied Itsuki, "and on my birthday, too. I'll see you later!"

He dashed from the kitchen and threw on the first clothes he set his eyes on. He slammed the door as he ran out of the house.

He breathed heavily as he ran farther and farther. It got harder for him to run as he got older, but he still had energy. He didn't care about the looks he got from all the people he passed by.

The closed space was just outside the city centre. It was the biggest one Haruhi had ever created and the first in many, many years. It had an eighty-mile radius. Fifty celestials pounded inside of it.

When Itsuki entered, he was nearly hit by a piece of debris as it flew through the air.

He enveloped himself in a red sphere and then soared through the air. He cut at the Celestial with fellow espers. He shot himself around the huge creature's neck, cutting of its head. His hair whipped his neck as he flew at break-neck speed all around.

He had the Celestial destroyed in minutes, but there were still so many around him.

He fought continuously, feeling more and more drained of power as he went along. His colleagues were becoming worried that they would not win this time.

They had finally conquered the closed space, and it was the biggest spectacle all of them had ever seen. Such an immense closed space made for a heart-pounding sight as it cracked and fell apart.

Exhausted, Itsuki walked home at a leisurely pace.

When he got home, he collapsed into his chair. His children bounced into his lap and hugged him.

"What happened?" asked Juro.

"We want to know what happened!" said Reiko.

Itsuki had hidden the meaning of "closed space" to his children since the day they were born. After exchanging a look with his wife, he decided the time was right to explain everything to them.

He told them about his powers, but told them they mustn't tell a soul anything of what he was telling them. He explained how Haruhi had the power to destroy the universe, and how she created closed spaces that contained Celestials when she had stress.

At first, they found it difficult to understand that a single person could do such things, but as Itsuki explained it, they stopped asking questions.

They understood.

"Now, I need to go rest," said Itsuki on to finish off. He had fought very hard in that last event, so he needed a break from it all. He walked into his room and practically fell onto the bed. He lay there staring up at the ceiling.

_That went well_

Itsuki skipped work the next day and called in sick. He wasn't really sick; he was just exhausted from the events that happened the day before. The kids made breakfast for him and that made him feel a little better.

The day after, he felt much better and decided he'd go to work. He was strolling casually, when he got the silent signal. Haruhi Suzumiya had created another closed space.

He rushed to the site and entered. This one was smaller than the last, with only one towering Celestial contained inside.

Itsuki heard a sound he had never heard inside a closed space. He could hear the echoing screams of a child.

He ran around the closed space, following the sound.

There was debris flying everywhere, but Itsuki could see through it. Dodging the pieces of a destroyed building was Juro Koizumi.

_How―What are you doing in here?_ This thought only swept through Itsuki's mind for a moment, then he dashed through the clouds of destruction to his son.

"Daddy!" yelled Juro over the thundering pounding of the Celestials. They were so close to it, it was dangerous.

Itsuki picked up his fear struck child and stormed away from the giant. When they had reached the edge of the space, he set his son down.

"Stay here!" he shouted. "Don't move!"

He turned abruptly and let his red power glow around him. He rose up and went to fight with his esper comrades. They had it down in only a few short minutes.

Itsuki immediately hurried back to his frightened son, who was shaking.

"Watch, Juro," he said calmingly. "This is what happens when we destroy a closed space."

Juro stood up and huddled up to his father and they watched together as the sky seemed to crack and fall around them, revealing the busy city.

Itsuki and his son looked at each other for minutes in amazement, then they walked home together.

They sat down with some tea and talked it over.

"When I was a bit older than you, I found out I was an esper who is supposed to destroy the closed spaces created by Haruhi Suzumiya. It must be because you are my son that it didn't seem so apparent."

"I guess I never realized it was my esper powers," replied Juro. "I had felt strangely before. I think most of the times were right before you went off to a closed space. When I was in the closed space, I had no idea what to do. I just didn't know what those feelings meant. Now I do."

"Well," Itsuki said as he ruffled his son's hair. "It looks like we've got two espers in the family."

The Koizumi family had just sat down for they lunch. It was special, as today they were celebrating the family's newly discovered esper. They were enjoying it very much. Everything was well.

Suddenly, Itsuki and Juro looked up at each other with a little bit of a surprised gasp.

"We're sorry," started Juro excitedly.

"But…." Continued Itsuki as they both stood up at the table.

"We must be leaving you for a short moment!" they said together. "Haruhi Suzumiya has created another closed space!"


	2. Chapter 2

Itsuki and Juro lifted off the ground and flew through the air, battling and circling the glowing blue Celestial as it pounded and destroyed everything in its path. Juro wondered if it felt pain, but that thought was short-lived. Such a demon would never feel pain.

Moving at such speeds, Juro felt as if he was going to collide or crash at any moment, tumbling to the ground and to his death. This however, did not happen. Instead, it was the Celestial that had that fate.

Its arms fell off and crashed into the ground, and then its head was sliced off by one of the other espers. The job was not too hard when they all worked together.

Itsuki landed back on the ground by his son when the fight was over and they watched together as the Closed Space cracked and broke apart in a big finale of light and sound. It took a moment for them to re-adjust to the real world again.

The two of them came home and Ituski's wife was ready with a hot bowl of ramen for each of them. They ate it slowly and loudly, absorbing the heat and taste as they swallowed the wet noodles.

The next day wasn't much different. They were eating their lunch, when suddenly a Closed Space needed tending to. They excused themselves and rushed off, leaving the wife and daughter by themselves. They did not like being left alone like this is the middle of a meal, but they knew that they had no choice.

This Closed Space was a bit bigger than the last and was quickly growing. They did not wait longer than a second to power up and to go fight. They had gone through the same thing the day before, so they still had in mind the best method of defeat. This time the destruction of the Closed Space was not as amazing as the last. Two days in a row, it wasn't exciting anymore.

Every day for the next week, a Closed Space appeared somewhere, and Itsuki and his son would run off to go destroy it. It was not what you would call practical, but you could call it work.

"We need to find the source of such unhappiness for Miss Susumiya," said Itsuki to his son while they were walking home. "We can't let this go on if it can be helped. I've never seen her create Closed Spaces this frequently before."

"How are we going to do that?" asked Juro. "It's not like we can just come up to her door and say 'Hey, Miss Suzumiya! Do you mind telling us why you were creating such trouble for us lately? Those Closed Spaces are popping up every day!'"

"No, you're right, but I've got a hunch as to what may have happened."

Itsuki held his son's hand and they started walking. It didn't take too long, but it was long enough for Juro to start to get bored. He decided he'd say something to make sure they weren't on a wild goose chase.

"Dad, are you sure this is the right way?"

"Well, no, but we're almost in the first place I want to look. I think it may be the most likely place for us to find answers."

Itsuki replied the way he always had to his son's questions; calmly. He was never agitated, never uptight. He was the kind of person his son looked up to and wanted to be.

The dark clouds in the sky gave way and it started to rain, but Itsuki did not turn back, just kept going. They had reached where he had heard of Haruhi going before. He thought he might find her here today.

They walked along until they found the place in the cemetery and there read the name as clear as could see; Suzumiya. In front of it was a figure of a woman. She was kneeling down and facing the shrine of sorts, her head bowed slightly.

Itsuki could tell who it was from five feet away; the distance that he and his son were currently standing from her.

Although the rain pattered against the ground, they could hear Haruhi sobbing. Her breathing was uneven, her shoulders shaking. They weren't trying to listen, but they could hear her whispering between her uneasy breaths.

"Why….why did you have to leave me?" Haruhi whispered. "I still need you…..I'm not ready for your to leave me yet. There was so much I still wanted to do. I want you to still be by my side, to guide me through my problems, to help me reach my goals. You were always so confident, and I tried so hard to be just like you. You were exactly who I wanted to be, and I still need you to help me fulfill that dream…..

"You always told me that I need to be strong, and I tried so hard. You told me I could do anything I wanted and that's what I tried to do, but I still don't know if it was enough. I haven't gotten enough time with you yet. Why did you have to leave me now?"

Haruhi stood up and slowly turned to leave. She turned around until she laid eyes on Itsuki and Juro, her eyes swollen and overflowing with tears. Her long, dark hair, slightly tangled, lightly caressed her shoulders.

"Koizumi..?" she said slowly, her eyes squinting slightly and her eyebrows tightening.

She slowly walked towards him, not sure why he was there.

"Miss Suzumiya…" Itsuki started to say, but he didn't need to finish. Haruhi gasped, realizing it was him.

"It _is_ you," she said "Koizumi, why?"

"I was only worried about you," Itsuki said. "I wasn't sure if I'd find you here, but I must tell you something."

"No, Koizumi, nothing will ever make me happy again. Mother is gone. I cannot see her anymore. There is nothing good left."

"Do you remember North High? Do you remember the SOS Brigade?"

"What does that have to do with anything? It's over, all those days spent on trivial activities, they are completely gone. Those many days of happiness, they mean nothing to me now."

"Do you remember looking for aliens, time travelers and espers?"

"Who cares about them anymore? They don't exist. It's impossible. I should have realized that fact so long ago."

"You don't truly think that, do you?"

Haruhi tensed slightly and looked at him with a confused expression.

"I didn't think so," continued Itsuki. "You still believe they could still be out there. You were surrounded by them all this time."

"What? No. You are fooling with me, Koizumi. There are no aliens, time travelers or espers at all."

"No, that's not true. Believe me, Miss Suzumiya, they are around you. Miss Nagato is an alien. Well, a Humanoid Interface to be exact. Miss Asahina, is a time traveler and I am what you'd call an esper. We are all this way because you wanted it. You wished it. Wish for anything Miss Suzumiya, you'll have it. You have an amazing gift; you can have whatever you want. Wish for it, you can make it a reality."

Haruhi's face brightened, but she wasn't truly happy.

"Show me…..show me! I need proof!" Haruhi got louder as she made her way through this statement. How could she believe him? Words mean nothing. Words can be spoken without feeling, without meaning behind them; empty words.

"I'm sorry, Miss Suzumiya. I can't at this time. _We _can't. Juro and I are not currently able to do so."

"Of course…" said Haruhi "…because you actually don't have powers. You're covering it up!"

"It makes perfect sense for you not to believe me, but I promise I'll be able to show you, sometime."

Itsuki's face suddenly took on an expression that Haruhi had never seen before. It was only for an instant, but it was there long enough for her to notice. It had flashed across the boy's face at the same time. Something strange was happening.

"It appears I can show you now…" said Itsuki. He held out his hand. Haruhi, not knowing what else to do, reached out to hold it.

"Right this way…" he said. "Close your eyes for one moment."

"Why?"

"Just do it." It was the boy who spoke this time. Reluctantly, Haruhi did so.

When she opened her eyes, the world of grey shocked her, but she had seen it before. A blue giant thrashed about in the distance. It was like the strange dream she had had such a long time ago.

_Was it really a dream?_

"Watch," said Itsuki.

He and his son became two red balls of light that began to fly through the air, destroying the blue giant, piece by piece.

"Impossible…" she whispered to herself.


End file.
